1&1 Domains Review

1&1 is one of the worst domain registrars I have ever used, I'll explain why now.

1.9

User Rating1(1 vote)

Sending

Support

1&1 offer live chat, phone and ticket support, I have had lots of problems with the support. They are all scripted and are not allowed to not use the script, they are mostly incompetent (although I have had one agent who knew what he was doing) but you get what you pay for with the “low” prices.

One support issue I had is that I updated my name-servers on a domain I had just purchased, instead of the domain updating its information, like any other registrar, it instead locked my control panel stating that the update was in progress. I waited the two days as recommended for changing a name-server record and it had still not changed from the 1&1 servers; my domain records however had been deleted from 1&1 before the switch was completed which downed my website as there was no records available for it. It took 3 days of calling, email and finally their Twitter support to fix my issue (the control panel lost sync with my domain thus requiring a System Administrator to correct the problem).

I have had better experiances with their support lately however, I had left a domain to the very last minuet before cancelling it and had been given an invoice, after 5 minuets on the phone the domain was cancelled along with the invoice. Hopefully the support continues to be as good as that phone call!

Upsells

For anyone who doesn’t know the definition of an UpSell is “persuade a customer to buy something additional or more expensive.” this is something 1and1 are great at.#

For example, if you were to purchase a .co.uk domain from 1&1 you will pay: £0.99 (excl VAT) for the first year BUT you have to pay 2 years at a time so add £6.99 (excl VAT) and now you’re paying £7.98 excl VAT or £9.58 with VAT for that domain, the renewal price is £6.99 excl VAT each year or £8.39 with VAT.

You are also pressured into purchasing their web hosting packages at an outrages cost and their “sitelock” which “protects” you from hackers.

1and1 is truly the king of upselling.

Other Comments

A few other things about 1and1 I would like to mention would be:

Domain Registration can take anywhere from an hour to over 48 hours

Their control panel is slow and confusing, domains are split into “contracts” which makes it awkward to manage lots of domains

Their website also looks very “generic” with lots of stock images of employees

They do offer free WHOIS protection, I’ve seen it randomly turn off though so be careful!

There are a LOT of upsells, be careful with the renewal costs as I was almost charged £20 for a .co.uk domain!

I need to mention that 1and1 will CALL you to try and sell their web hosting packages, website builders and other services, expect a lot of phone calls from 1and1 if you are a new customer.

Bottom Line

1and1 are an established company, you shouldn’t buy from them though. If you are looking to register a domain I recommend NameSilo!